Port of Long Beach officials urge caution in headquarters site search

LONG BEACH — Learning from two failed attempts to relocate the Port of Long Beach staff into a new headquarters, harbor leaders on Monday called for transparency and the establishment of ground rules before taking the next step.

Moving the port's 350 or so administrative employees to a new building has been more than a decade in the making and has been rife with contention for at least the last two years.

Costly earthquake retrofitting requirements and asbestos and lead-based paint issues have prompted port officials to move the staff out of the 53-year-old building at 925 Harbor Plaza within the port complex.

They had planned for a new $220 million headquarters near its current location, but Mayor Bob Foster considered the price tag too steep for his taste and vetoed the plan in 2010.

Port officials thought the World Trade Center would be their new headquarters, but a lack of major approval from the commission derailed the deal.

Further politicizing matters was news of alleged closed session accusations made by one commissioner against two others.

Board members last week said they were interested in building a headquarters in or near downtown, but this time around, they expressed a more cautious and inclusive route to building the new headquarters.

"I know we'll get political pressure from one area or another, ideas from one area or another," Commissioner Nick Sramek said Monday. "We need to set some ground rules for what we will be able to do. Maybe there are some limitations.

"We better find those things out before we start putting together a process, ... before we get started and spin our wheels for six months and then find out, we aren't going to let you do that one."

Commission President Susan E. Anderson Wise suggested an open session where the public can share their ideas with the port about where the headquarters should be so it's "clear that everything is being considered and that there are no assumptions in what we are doing going forward."

"It's been a long process to get us to this decision and some have said that there were some false starts," Wise said. "And moving forward I think it's important that we have a process that is very transparent and deliberate and I hope will be inclusive and expansive."

A couple of people at the meeting - including Tommy Faavae of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 11 - were happy that a new building is being considered, wherever it may be.

Faavae asked that the port consider a project labor agreement when it is ready to build.

"I feel that a project labor agreement would bring a project on time and under budget and create real good jobs that's needed here at the port," he said.

The commissioners also finalized their decision last week to temporarily move to a former Boeing Co. C-17 building near Long Beach Airport, voting 4-1 with Commissioner Thomas Fields dissenting. Fields supported a move to the World Trade Center in downtown Long Beach.

Final approval for the $14.25 million purchase of 4801 Airport Plaza Drive will go before the City Council, which would have to change the port's budget to allocate the money. The deal would likely close Dec. 27 and port staff would be moving in about six months later, port officials said.